The circuit was showing itself to be tricky over the weekend, there were various directives about which way you should go if you happened to veer outside the white lines and it was also a little slippery, not to mention the high altitude (please no one mention the high altitude anymore). There were lock-ups going to the grid and Verstappen's drinks bottle was leaking unless he clamped his teeth down on the straw. I think this is just the kind of racing impediment that Ecclestone was looking to bring in to spice up the racing.
The start was both absolute chaos and not really chaotic at all. Verstappen went wide and cut back in, then giving places gained back. But not to Russell. Stroll Strolled at the back. Norris had a gap big enough to avoid DRS by the end of the first lap, out in the lead. Bearman made up three places and Piastri dropped two.
On lap two, Lawson pitted for a new front wing but it wasn't long before he had to retire the car.
Then something happened as we were watching the replays of the start. It was hard to tell what because it was hard to tell if we were still watching the replays or live racing. Verstappen went off, Bearman got to fourth, Russell dropped to seventh and Hamilton went off over the grass (BBC Five Live kept saying that drivers were "cutting the grass", this irked me because they are racing highly-sophisticated pieces of tech not ride-on mowers). Then drivers seemed to go off again, or was this a replay, with Bearman getting past. The coverage was very confused, at no point did they show a long enough shot of one continuous piece of action for you to get the full picture of what happened but cut to other angles or what was happening elsewhere. They couldn't have known it was too soon to go back to replay the start but actually, they could see that the drivers were still going three or four wide into corners. Ultimately, I still have no real idea what happened in these two early incidents, one of which resulted in Hamilton getting a ten second penalty and his promising race ruined.
Tsunoda did a good enough job of holding up Piastri for his team mate but by lap eleven, he was passed. Meanwhile Norris was setting fastest lap after fastest lap but Antonelli and Russell seemed to be in freefall.
Williams gave Sainz a five second pit stop but the limiter was broken on his car so he received a five second penalty for speeding in the pit lane too, which happened again towards the end of the race. As he was out of the points anyway, he came in and took it with no work happening on the car so that it wouldn't be carried over to the next event.
And now we get to half way through the race, phew! Russell was getting angrier and angrier on the radio that he was not being assisted to get past his team mate ahead of him. Contender for radio comment of the season is his engineer who, when told that Russell felt he was quicker than Antonelli, told him he was free to race. This went on and on until Mercedes capitulated and they switched places, which was tricky going because Piastri was right behind the pair. It was then clearly pointlessly risky as they pitted Antonelli and McLaren also bought in Piastri. This seemed like madness as it had been labelled a one stop race with no need to change for fresh soft tyres. Russell and Bearman also went for it, with Bearman giving up his third place to Verstappen. The question is whether Bearman secured fourth place or lost third?
At this point Aston Martin retired Alonso, with Hulkenberg having stopped in his garage earlier in the race.
We were nearly at the end now when Sainz stopped in the baseball stadium section, there were two laps to go when it was decided that a Virtual Safety Car was needed, which halted a fierce battle between LeClerc (who had held second for the whole race) and Verstappen. By now Norris had a thirty-five second lead. Even though Verstappen might think he was denied a short time to try and get past LeClerc, I would contend that it also game him time not to make a stupid mistake. He is starting to look hot-headed again as the championship is now in his sight. Unfortunately, Bearman was fifteen seconds behind, so even if he did something stupid and was given a ten second penalty, it wouldn't promote the Haas driver. He would be voted Driver of the Day though. It makes me want to check whether Ocon's contract is secure for next season as he has been so thoroughly trounced by his rookie team mate.
Norris finished the Mexican event as championship leader again and he looked calm, despite the booing.
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